Former India cricket team captain Sourav Ganguly has many nicknames – the Prince of Calcutta, Bengal Tiger, Dada and Lord of the offside, among others. The charismatic character from Kolkata is one of the most successful and loved cricketers in the country.
Sourav Ganguly has built a legacy that only a few players match in India. A stellar career, aggressive style of leading the team and endless swagger were some of the reasons Ganguly remains one of the most celebrated cricketers even now, many years after his retirement.
What are Sourav Ganguly’s famous nicknames?
Sourav Ganguly is famous with several nicknames apart from the most famous ‘Dada’, which was given by his teammates.
‘Maharaja’ was the nickname his parents gave him, and later, he was called the Maharaja of Indian cricket.
‘The Prince of Calcutta was used by former England cricketer Geoffrey Boycott and later became very popular.
‘Bengal Tiger’ is a nickname Ganguly received for his aggressive style and short temper.
‘The God of the off side was a nickname bestowed on Ganguly for his magnificent batting game on the offside.
Why was Sourav Ganguly called Dada?
The former Indian captain is known as Dada across the country. The nickname became the synonym of Sourav Ganguly, and there are plenty of reasons for it.
Ganguly was more than a captain for Indian cricket. He took charge as the captain of the Indian team after the match-fixing scandal that rocked Indian cricket, and people lost their faith in the team. He brought credibility back to Indian cricket with the way he led, and the team fought.
Ganguly backed his players to the hilt. Many youngsters like Yuvraj Singh, Harbhajan Singh and Virender Sehwag, who started their careers under Sourav Ganguly’s rein, became legends. For them, Ganguly was like an elder brother, as in Dada.
Sourav Ganguly was known for his aggressive, not backing down nature. He never shied away from giving it back to the opposition in verbal mind games.
His fans hailed Sourav Ganguly for making an opponent captain wait at the toss once and for his iconic shirt removal at Lord’s.
Sourav Ganguly’s India career and records
| Format | Span | Matches | Runs | HS | Ave | 100 | 50 |
| Test matches | 1996-2008 | 113 | 7212 | 239 | 42.17 | 16 | 35 |
| One-Day Internationals | 1992-2007 | 311 | 11363 | 183 | 41.02 | 22 | 72 |
Sourav Ganguly made his ODI debut in 1992 but was dropped immediately. He then piled on runs in domestic cricket earning himself a recall for the England tour in 1996. Ganguly made his Test debut in the second Test of the series and scored a century. His 131 remains the highest Test score on a debut at Lord’s. Late in his career in 2005, he was involved in a beef with the then Indian head coach Greg Chappell. He was dropped from the Indian team. Although he made a return, Ganguly eventually retired in 2008.
The left handed batter went on to become one of the prolific run scorer for India. Sourav Ganguly finished his career with 11363 runs in one day international cricket from 311 matches with 22 hundreds. He played 113 Tests for India, scoring 7212 runs with 16 centuries. He was a more than handy bowler and ended with 132 wickets in his international career.
Sourav Ganguly is ninth one the list of highest run scorers of all time in ODI cricket. He was the third batsman to reach the 10000-run milestone in the ODIs. Ganguly has the second most runs scored in a calendar year in the fifty-over format with 1767 runs. He also sits second on the list of most ODI hundreds in a calendar year with seven tons.
Sourav Ganguly is the only player in the history to win four consecutive man of the match awards in One Day Internationals. He has the record for the highest individual score by any batsman in a ICC Champions Trophy final (117). Ganguly also holds the record for the highest individual score by an Indian batsman (183) in the ODI World Cup. He is also one of the five cricketers in the history of ODI cricket to have achieved a treble of 10,000 runs, 100 wickets and 100 catches, with others being Sachin Tendulkar, Sanath Jayasuriya, Jack Kallis and Tillakaratne Dilshan.
Speaking of his captaincy career, Sourav Ganguly took charge of the Indian Cricket team in 2000 after a match fixing scandal hit Indian cricket and Sachin Tendulkar stepped down as the captain. Sourav Ganguly is amongst the most successful captains in Indian cricket. He is the third most successful captain in the longer format, where he captained India in 49 matches and won 21 while losing 13. In ODIs, he led India in 146 matches and won 76 while losing 65.
Ganguly’s stint in the IPL
| Team | Year | Matches | No | Runs | HS | Average | SR | 100 | 50 |
| Career | 59 | 3 | 1349 | 91 | 25.45 | 106.81 | 0 | 7 | |
| Pune Warriors India | 2012 | 15 | 0 | 268 | 45 | 17.86 | 98.89 | 0 | 0 |
| Pune Warriors India | 2011 | 4 | 1 | 50 | 32* | 25 | 84.74 | 0 | 0 |
| Kolkata Knight Riders | 2010 | 14 | 1 | 493 | 88 | 37.92 | 117.66 | 0 | 4 |
| Kolkata Knight Riders | 2009 | 13 | 0 | 189 | 46 | 17.18 | 91.3 | 0 | 0 |
| Kolkata Knight Riders | 2008 | 13 | 1 | 349 | 91 | 29.08 | 113.68 | 0 | 3 |
Ganguly never played a T20 match for India but was picked as the icon player by Kolkata Knight Riders in the IPL. He was made the captain of the franchise for the inaugural season. They finished sixth on the points table with six wins out of 14 league matches.
Things became ugly in the next season when Kolkata’s favourite son was removed from the captaincy, with Brendon McCullum taking over. Ganguly was involved in a muddy situation with the then KKR coach John Buchanan.
After their bottom-place finish in IPL 2009, Knight Riders ended ties with Buchanan and brought in Dave Whatmore as the coach while handing the captaincy back to Sourav Ganguly. In 2011, he went unsold in first round of the mega auction but was later picked by Pune Warriors India. Two forgettable seasons later, Ganguly announced his retirement from all forms of cricket.
Sourav Ganguly played 59 T20s in total in the IPL, scoring 1349 runs at an average of 25.45 and strike rate of touch below 107. All in all, his IPL career wasn’t memorable for right reasons.
Sourav Ganguly as the BCCI President
In his post retirement days, Sourav Ganguly held quite a few administrative positions in Indian cricket. He was the president of Cricket association of Bengal from 2015 to 2019 before he took over as the president of Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI). He held the post of the BCCI president until September 2022.
The Bengal Tiger’s rein as the president turned out to be complete opposite his captaincy legacy, tarnished for his inability and politics. When he took over the job, Sourav Ganguly advocated for the player welfare and bigger paychecks for domestic players but could not bring it to reality. His approach towards women’s cricket in India was questioned time and again. When Indian women reached the final of the 2020 T20 World Cup, the BCCI took more than a year to distribute the prize money when they had received it a week after the final.
His biggest controversy that did the most damage was his public spat with the then Indian cricket team captain Virat Kohli and the subsequent removal of Kohli from the captaincy. The duo engaged in mud-slinging, calling out each other as liars.
FAQs
What is Sourav Ganguly’s school name?
Ganguly’s full name in school was Sourav Chandidas Ganguly. He studied at St. Xavier’s Collegiate School in Kolkata.
What are the famous nicknames of Sourav Ganguly?
Sourav Ganguly had several famous nicknames such as Dada, Bengal Tiger, Prince of Calcutta, Maharaja and the God of off side.
